Candy Corn Creatures Collage

My Grade 4's recently finished these super cute candy corn creatures. It's a fairly simple two class project that helps reinforce good cutting and gluing skills.

I gave students two printed candy corn templates to choose from. Using markers (Mr. Sketch works really well for this due to the thick chisel tip) they colour them in and then cut them out.

Time to pull out my big box of scrap paper!

They cut out arms, legs, accessories and facial features.

In-between classes, we stored all the loose pieces in page protectors.

Some Grade 4 results!

Wax Crayon Batik Style Pumpkins

I love wax crayon style batik projects- they usually have a really high success rate with all students.

I found THIS project via Pinterest using pumpkins and thought it would be perfect for an October lesson with my Grade 5 students. 

This is also a great lesson in learning how to draw a pumpkin realistically, to give it a sense of form. My students have already practiced this with me in Grade 3 and 4 so are pretty good at this point and need little drawing guidance.

They drew their pumpkin on regular photocopy paper. 

Then they coloured it in thickly using wax crayons.

Trace over the pencil lines with a black crayon. This helps it stand out later.

Once everything is coloured in, they crumple up their artwork one or two times. 

They get a big kick out of this part! Then flatten it out.

I usually use watered down acrylic black acrylic pant for the batik effect. Paint a layer over the entire artwork, wait a couple minutes or so, then I rinse them off in the sink and put them to dry on a large piece of construction paper.

2018 UPDATE: this year students painted over their artwork using undiluted black liquid watercolours. They wiped off the excess with paper towel. 

This worked quite well and is easier than using the acrylic paint. 

Some Grade 5 results

Frankenstein Monster's Collage

My Grade 2's made these quirky and funny looking Frankenstein Monster collages.

I was inspired by these collages found on Artsonia HERE.

We simply used construction paper, scissors and glue sticks.

Falling Leaves Watercolour Paintings

Grade 4-6 students made these lovely falling leaves watercolour paintings using liquid watercolours.

I was inspired by THIS post on Pinterest- no source is given.

I cut some manila tagboard (cheap!) in half and students drew a leaf of their choice on it. They needed to include a stem and draw the veins on. Once cut out, this was their tracer.

*I encouraged the older students (Grade 6) to draw a more challenging leaf, such as a maple or oak. Grade 4 students mostly drew the simpler leaves.

I cut 12 x 18" heavy white paper in half vertically. Students used their leaf tracer and traced it a bunch of times onto the paper. They need to overlap some of them and I also encouraged the used of a diagonal composition which helps give a sense of movement or falling leaves.

Once traced, the leaves and veins were outlined in Sharpie.

Liquid watercolors have become one of my favorite art media. They are not as convenient as regular palette watercolors but they are just so beautiful to paint with; much more vibrant (at least mine are).

Although I store mine in condiment cups that are placed in tempera puck trays, there is at least one spill per class. So I have cloths handy to wipe up spills.

The kids started off by painting the leaves using warm colours. 

They were encouraged to use the wet-on-wet technique and allow the

 colours to bleed together.

The next class, once the leaves were dry, they painted the background using cool colours.

Here are some of the finished ones- these are much more vibrant in person.

My new camera phone takes terribly dull and washed out photos!